Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

27 October 2022.

Excerpt:

>The study was carried out during the 2018-2019 Five Deeps Expedition, the first manned descent with the submersible DSV Limiting Factor to the deepest point of each of the world’s five oceans, and focused on the amphipod Bathycallisoma schellenbergi which was unexpectedly found in the traps of nearly every trench of hadal depth (between six and 11 kms).

>“We finally had a global specimen collection to test questions that have been around since the 1950s. This led us to question this paradox and wonder if maybe we were looking at multiple but very similar-looking species.” [said co-author Professor Alan Jamieson].

>The study’s first author, Postdoctoral Scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Johanna Weston, said scientists used a short section of DNA to test if all the populations were the same species.

>“The amphipods at the Atacama Trench are likely a new and undescribed species that is very closely related.”

> 

>“We found that overall populations were not genetically mixed between trenches, indicating they were highly restricted to the trench they were collected from,” Dr Weston said.

>“We did find evidence of limited interbreeding between two closely located and connected trenches, the Kermadec and Tonga trenches, which are separated by just 1000km, so surmised some amphipods could have swum across what are relatively shallow depths.”

>Professor Jamieson said the study advanced the field of hadal science, particularly at the intersection of evolutionary and geologic history, providing evidence to show that each of the hadal areas acted like an island-like habitat with populations on separate evolutionary trajectories.

Science Advances, DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abo6672

[removed]

They went so deep they came out the other side!

[deleted]

[removed]

[removed]

It makes a lot of sense. Much easier/safer to stay in the same trench you always knew.

I bet that motherfucker is delicious

no, I don't think I will.

[removed]

First of all, DSV Limiting Factor is such a perfect name for a ship for many reasons, chief of which is the genius of Iain Banks. Secondly, "hadal" was a new word for me, so I looked it up. It's just the adjective form of Hades. Which seems really appropriate for this sort of research.

Oooh hadal. “Hadal”. hAdAl.

Is it hah-Dahl or Hay-dul?

Google says Hay-dul as you would in Hades

Such a good movie!

[removed]

But there's a sexy crustacean in the trench across the road from you.

Very interesting. The deep ocean is an incredible place!

what platform

It's all fun and exploration until Haddie comes up and steals our children.

You lost the woman of your dreams, but you still have Zoidberg.

YOU ALL STILL HAVE ZOIDBERG!!!

[removed]

If you can work out a deal with him you can get them back 6 months a year.

I wonder if the environment of different trenches is unique enough to actually create noticeably divergent evolution like we see on some isolated islands (a bird like the kiwi filling a space that would normally be held by a rodent, or komodo dragons in the space that would normally be held by a big cat or wolf) Or would the conditions at that depth be so harsh that every trench trends towards the same evolutionary solutions?

Yeah its called a niche. Biology 101.

The pressure down there is incredible, eight tons per square inch—or about a thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.

I am curious if some proteins and other Parts of cells function any differently in a high pressure versus low pressure environment

Sounds like Mr Hands was involved.

They taste like a cross between shrimp and crab.

Cuz if they only could, they’d make a deal with shark, and get ‘em to swap their places, be swimming up that zone, be running with that krill, e-scaping the heat of that vent

Same as on land. Huh. Anyway...

This is what I’m lecturing about in my class this week. We’re talking productivity in the photic zone (upper ~100 m where photosynthesis can occur), and how that region supports most of the food chain at the surface. Then there’s a grey area where nothing really happens then you get to the bottom of the ocean where life flourishes again thanks to black smokers! We’re doing the light bottle/dark bottle experiment this week in my lab.

Looks like an albino crawdad. I’d eat it.

[removed]

I wonder if as the oceans warm, this will mimic topographic-driven isolation in mountains.

Basically, it’s the idea that as temperatures rise and species move up to higher elevations (or in this case, down to lower depths), specialization and speciation should rise as gene flow drops. If I’m remembering my ecology classes correctly.

God what great books. I wish there were more

I just read The Player of Games for the first time last month, so the name brought an immediate smile to my face too.

Amiphipod: swims up to you “Be cool, do drugs”

You: begins visibly sweating

"Do you even lift, bro?"

This is how I feel about alcoholism